Business & Finance: Bethlehem Reformation

Last week Bethlehem Steel's Chairman Charles Michael Schwab and
President Eugene Gifford Grace wrote a letter to their stockholders
which began: "As you know, Bethlehem Steel Corp. is a holding company
in that its assets consist chiefly of stocks and obligations of its
subsidiary companies and it does not own or operate any physical
properties. Its chief income, therefore, has always been in the form of
dividends. . . ."

Messrs. Schwab & Grace went on to explain that, thanks to New Deal tax
measures, holding companies were now something of a liability. Reasons:...